Significant advances have been made in the last few decades in the care and treatment of people's teeth. Not only are there a host of personal teeth care appliances and teeth cleaning agents, but significant advances have also been made in the general practice and general dentistry field. It has become a common practice to repair teeth by placing a crown, onlay or artificial tooth structure over the existing (remaining) nondecayed structure. The original tooth is generally prepared by grinding a major portion of the tooth away, leaving only the remaining structure. A mold is made of the prepared tooth structure, so that a crown or onlay can be fabricated. In the meantime, the patient is fitted with a temporary crown so that normal chewing functions can be carried out during the time in which the permanent crown is made. A crown remover of this type is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,026.
During the procedure in fitting the temporary crown and grinding the original tooth structure, numerous attempts are generally made to fit the temporary crown on the remaining tooth structure, as far as height and concavity are concerned. In doing so, various types of pliers and other appliances have been constructed so as to firmly grip the temporary crown for placement on the remaining tooth structure. The pliers generally include a rounded set of jaws to firmly grip the crown so as to fit it on the remaining tooth structure, as well as remove it for grinding adjustments to either the remaining tooth structure or the temporary crown.
Frequently, in the placement or removal of the temporary crown or onlay from the remaining tooth structure, the crown or onlay inadvertently loses its grip from the pliers, and falls or otherwise becomes dislodged in the patient's mouth. In other more serious occurrences, the patient can inadvertently swallow or aspirate the crown or onlay. This is especially troublesome when the crown/onlay fitting operation is carried out on the upper teeth of a patient. The occurrences with which the temporary crowns or onlays are inadvertently dropped in the patient's mouth are frequent during the training of dental students.
Pliers-type appliances that are forged to be short are not often used for the reason that they cannot easily access a patient's teeth with an unobstructed view, especially the posterior teeth.
It is well known that a crown replaces the entire biting surface of the patient's tooth. In order to prepare a tooth for a crown, a large portion of the enamel and dentin is removed. An onlay, on the other hand, can be used to repair the cusp portions of the biting surface of a tooth. An onlay is bonded on the top of the biting surface that was damaged or decayed. Because the onlay is a smaller structure, as compared to a crown, different types of grips on dental devices are necessary to firmly grip the structure so that it can be reliably installed or removed from the tooth.
It can be seen from the foregoing, that a need exists for a technique for easily recovering a dropped crown so that it does not fall in the patient's mouth. Another need exists for a dental appliance that is long and forged for easier access and that is equipped with a basket for catching a dislodged crown to prevent it from falling into the patient's mouth. Another need exists for a dental appliance that can deflect or catch a crown, onlay or other similar device dislodged from the dental appliance. Another need exists for a crown remover that allows easier access in a patient's mouth to posterior teeth for attaching and removing a crown thereon. Yet another need exists for various crown grips shaped to facilitate the removal of crowns. An additional need exists for a crown remover adapted for removably attaching various tips thereto, where the tips have different shaped crown grips.